Five Ghosts
by Tomoyo Kinomoto
Summary: That old tree had been haunted for generations, now, but Ryou doesn't believe in ghosts. And yet, he can't seem to make the past stop haunting him... AU for the tag-oneshot challenge. (Image from vanillapearl on Deviant Art)


**So, I've decided to kick-start a new project – oneshot tag! I'm the first, tagged by sakuuya to write about ghosts (baaaasically). Anyways, in short, I don't own TMM, I'm not particularly pleased with how this turned out, but I hope you like it anyways. I also don't own the song 'The Five Ghosts' by Stars. It's not an inspiration for this fic, but it's a nice mood piece and a good song.**

**Yeah, I feel like I'm getting predictable, plus you can tell I haven't written in a while because I abuse commas like nobody's business and use super flowery language. Ah well.**

* * *

An errant moonbeam shone down the sakura tree's gnarled branches, piercing through a gap in the leaves to hit Ryou Shirogane directly in the face, illuminating him even as it blinded him. He heard whisperings and turned, frowning and still squinting from the sudden light, to see a pair of teenage boys, their pale forms barely visible, gawking at him across the field. They had their heads together and were crouched low, plainly afraid of getting caught.

Ryou chuckled to himself, shifting his position so that his face was pulled into shadow. The boys, as with most of the people who lived around here, thought that this tree was haunted. It had been beautiful at one point, but age at twisted it into a more grotesque form. But it was a foolish thought. There were no such things as ghosts after all. In fact, Ryou remembered fondly, as a young child, he had once written a paper arguing that very point. In a world full of science, there was no place for silly superstitions like ghosts.

A silvery bird suddenly appeared, the moon playing tricks as its light passed over the creature, causing it to look at times as if it were glowing. Curious, Ryou watched the bird soar through the air, moving fluidly between the streams of wind that blew past.. It flew around Ryou's head, trilling inquisitively. As strange as it sounded, there was something familiar about that bird.

He shivered, shaking off a fleeting feeling of dread as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. There was nothing strange about that bird. He was just getting jumpy from standing under that tree. Which was ridiculous; he had no reason to be edgy. The bird chirped, unperturbed as it landed nearby and cocked its head from side to side, regarding him. It waited on its tree branch, expectant.

Sighing, Ryou pushed off the tree, deciding that had let his imagination run far enough. With a burst of song, the bird took to the skies, circling Ryou a few times before darting ahead, its silvery figure still clearly visible on the cloudless night.

A breeze rustled nearby branches and Ryou stopped, puzzled. He could see the bird perched in a tree a little ways off, staring at him, no longer as gay as it had first seemed. With no song to accompany it, the bird lifted from its branch and swiftly flew back in the direction they had just travelled, so close Ryou could feel the rippling of its feathers as darted past.

And in its wake, he could've sworn he heard a voice, familiar to him even though he hadn't heard her speak in years.

"_This is all your fault, Ryou Shirogane!"_

Ryou flinched, hands rising reflexively to protect himself from the accompanying slap. But it never came. He opened his eyes carefully to see a silvery girl standing before him, her hair done up in buns, angry tears spilling down her face. She seemed solid, although Ryou could almost see right through her. He froze. No. This was impossible. How could she be here? She was—They all were -

"_You were supposed to _protect_ her! You were supposed to protect all of us!"_

"_Me?!" Ryou remembered shouting back, holding his stinging cheek. "How was I supposed to do anything?"_

"_You knew! You knew that there were risks fighting the aliens, but you kept treating it like it was some kind of sick game!"_

"_Game?! You think this is fun for me?" He took a step closer to the blue-haired girl, hardly noticing that his best friend had grabbed his arm, holding him back. "I am trying to save the entire _planet_. My parents died for this-!"_

"_Oh, your _parents_," the girl sneered, crossing her arms and looking contemptuous, ignoring the tears that were now coursing down her face. "I'm so sorry that your _parents_ died, you poor baby."_

"_Mint," Zakuro said quietly, leaning against the café wall, her long, purple hair shielding her face._

_Mint whirled around to face her. "Don't you 'Mint' me!" she snarled._

_There was a moment of quiet where all you could hear were broken sobs. Ichigo and Lettuce sat huddled together in the middle of the room, their bodies slumped together in their shared grief. Ichigo had her arms around the porpoise-girl, both of them crying softly. Ryou felt tears welling in his eyes, losing his internal battle not to cry._

"_She trusted you," Mint spat. "We all did. We all went into this mess thinking it'd be easy, we were fucking superheroes! We fought, but we were never expecting any real danger, nothing like this." Hands clenched into fists at her sides, she choked back a sob, eyes still burning with hate. "You did this. You forced us to become these, these _monstrosities_, to put ourselves in mortal peril fighting at your whim. Well, I for one am done. I quit."_

_No one moved. Mint snarled in disgust, tearing her pendant off and throwing it to the ground in front of him. The doors closed with a snap behind her, hanging in the air long after she had left._

_Finally, Ichigo looked up at him, eyes wide. "Wh-what do we do now?"_

Ryou reeled, the phantom girl in front of him gone. No. This couldn't be happening, especially not to him. Ghosts. Weren't. _Real!_

He ran, scrambling to his feet as he lurched forward, not thinking, just trying to put as much distance between himself and that… thing as possible. Dodging trees, legs pumping, braches whipping at his unprotected face, Ryou ran. It was so long ago – how did she find him?! But that wasn't right, was it?

Risking a glance over his shoulder, Ryou crashed into something incredibly solid that gave a small squeak. Shaking his head briskly to stop the ringing, Ryou stared in amazement. A silvery girl poked her head around the tree he had just run into, her eyes, wide with fright, magnified by her large glasses.

"_R-Ryou?" _she asked, voice quivering. He froze, still sprawled ungracefully on the ground.

"_What's all this about?" Ichigo asked, walking in the far door, her head tilted in innocent confusion. Lettuce looked quickly at her then back to Ryou, tears welling in her eyes. She could hardly ever stay not crying for long nowadays._

"_It's – Well, you see – Mint -" Ryou started, face flushing in agitation._

_Keiichiro took a step forward, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Miss Aizawa has recently been attacked. We had no indication of the event, which is why we didn't send you girls to help, and so… "_

_Zakuro looked up sharply. Arms folded, one ankle resting gracefully atop the other as she stood, she was suddenly frightening._

"_She's dead," Ryou said bluntly, voice devoid of emotion._

_Silence, then, "Ryou," Ichigo said soothingly, a small grin on her face. "That's not funny. That's a really bad joke." No one said anything._

_Zakuro strode swiftly to the opposite side of room, hands on her hips. She tossed her hair. "What do you want us to do, then?" she asked, voice cold._

"_We need to stick together. Clearly they know your real identities, so it's not safe for you guys to ever be alone, even when detransformed," Ryou responded in kind, his voice flat. "Keiichiro and I think you should be relatively safe for now, so you can go back to your homes for the next few hours and pack, then meet back here by -"_

"_Ryou," Ichigo said softly, shaking her head. "Ryou, why are you doing this? We're not in danger. Mint's fine. Isn't she fine? You were just mad that she left, weren't you? W-weren't you?" Her smile trembled and tears started to fall. "C-c'mon guys, it's not funny anymore! Stop it! Mint's not dead – she can't be dead!"_

_Lettuce sat silently, bent over with her head in her hands with her forehead pressed against her knees. Even as he watched, Ryou could see tears splatter on the floor beneath her._

_Keiichiro walked over to kneel beside the girl, gently rubbing her back. "Ichigo," he said gently. The pink-haired girl shook her head, clapping her hands over her ears._

_SLAP!_

"_Ichigo, pull yourself together," Zakuro said, her voice as flat as it was before. "Ryou, you said we had a couple of hours?"_

"… _Yeah. About three, tops," he said, throat dry. A nod and a quick toss of her long, dark hair later, Zakuro had crossed the room and left._

Ryou scuttled backwards, stopping as his back hit a tree trunk. Eyes closed, he tilted his head back until it rested against the bark, his breath coming in short gasps. "S-stop," he breathed. "Leave me alone!"

"_Ryou, where're the others?"_

Shaking his head, eyes squeezed tight, Ryou refused to look at the lupine girl. She was standing behind him, hands on her hips, glaring at him expectantly. He could tell even without looking.

"_Ichigo just arrived – Keiichiro's giving her a hand with her things," he responded, turning to face the model._

When everything was falling apart about them, she had been the one to take control, to remind him of what he should be doing: being a leader and setting an example.

_Ichigo paced back and forth, her tail twitching behind her. "Where could she be?"_

"_You said she called you from her house?" Zakuro asked, turning to look Ryou directly in the eyes, her gaze level._

"_Um. Yeah. Yeah, she was asking about books. I told her to hurry up." Ryou winced, wishing yet again that he'd been gentler on the phone, but his nerves had gotten to him._

_Keiichiro poked his head into the room. "Ryou, the bunker's complete. We should move everyone inside now and plan what to do next."_

"_No," Zakuro said, her voice firm. "We need to find Lettuce."_

"_B-but, Zakuro," the strawberry-headed girl whined. "Ryou said we can't go out. Right, Ryou? He said i-it's dangerous out there."_

"_Ichigo. It _is _dangerous out there. That's why we have to stick together. That's why we have to find her." Zakuro's voice was barely louder than a whisper, but Ichigo flinched as if the older girl had shouted at her._

In their darkest moment, it was he who had failed them, but not her. She never panicked, never broke down. Not even at the end.

_Ichigo screamed, over and over. Ryou ran towards her, feeling sick. There, on the ground in front of her… They were too late._

_Zakuro stood next to the red-head, scanning the skies. Suddenly, she grabbed Ichigo's arm. "Ichigo. Run." She tugged, forcing the still-screaming girl to break into a run, moving swiftly down the street._

"_Zakuro, wait!" Ryou called, still a ways away from the pair. "Keiichiro, can you-"_

_Keiichiro nodded. "I'll see what I can do," he said, slowing down to kneel beside the body on the sidewalk._

_Ryou kept running, chest constricting. He concentrated on the sound his feet made slapping the pavement in an even rhythm. He had to keep it even. If the sound wasn't smooth, then bad things would happen. No, that was silly. If his running was uneven, then he couldn't move as quickly. Yes, that was it._

_Ichigo and Zakuro round the corner ahead and Ryou put on a burst of speed. He should be able to catch them while they were in human form. Briefly, he wondered why they didn't transform, then remembered that they would be exceptionally vulnerable while in metamorphosis. The hairs on his arms stood on end and Ryou shook his head, trying to calm down even as he ran faster still._

_An explosion rocked the ground. His face hit the pavement, dust swirling around him._

Ryou staggered to his feet.

"_No!"_

He stumbled forward, catching himself before he fell a second time. A silvery light shone through the trees ahead, beckoning him. He knew what was coming, but he was powerless to stop it. His feet moved forward of their own accord.

And there she knelt. One of her trademark pigtails had fallen loose, the other one a little worse for wear. She was still crying as she raised her face to watch him approach, wearing a look of utter desperation.

"_She died for me, did you know that?"_

_Ryou froze, uncertain. "Strawberry -" he started, but was cut off._

"_She _died_ for me, Ryou! I'm supposed to be dead!"_

"_Ichigo, just calm down. It'll be okay, just come over to me."_

_The cat-girl shook her head vigorously. "They're gonna get me," she whispered, hoarse. "And there's nothing I can do about it. Nothing, nothing…" She peered over her shoulder, looking down._

"No, don't!" Ryou murmured, paralyzed with dread.

_Ichigo looked up at him, a sad smile on her face._

"_Ichigo! Don't!"_

_And she was gone._

"ICHIGO!" Ryou bellowed, slamming his fists down into the soft earth. Openly weeping, he sagged, the weight of it all too much for him to bear. He sat there, slumped over, for who knows how long. They had died, and he had done nothing.

With a start, Ryou felt a hand being placed upon his shoulder and he looked up. A small, solemn face looked back at him. The young girl tugged at his arm, prompting him to rise. She skipped dutifully as they walked, all the playfulness that she possessed in life gone. Ryou followed, hollow inside.

_Keiichiro had found him hours later, still rooted to the spot, and led him gently home. Days blended together, weeks flashing by. Ryou wasn't sure what he was supposed to do anymore. He wandered aimlessly, until Keiichiro found him in unsafe places and made sure to keep him close to the café. For his own good._

_But what did it matter? They were all gone. Ryou felt like all the life had been sucked out of him. There was no point to doing anything anymore. He went through the motions of normal day-to-day life, but his heart wasn't really in it._

_He stopped watching the news, stopped working on Red Data research and hunting for Mew Aqua, stopped caring about the world. They would be fine without him. He had given it his best shot, and he had failed. _

Mint had been right: it _was_ his fault. Guilt wasn't a new emotion to Ryou – he remembered how tormented he felt after his parents' deaths – but it burned raw within him. Science, so far his greatest ally, had let him down. The Mew Project was a failure, and he, Ryou Shirogane, was to blame.

_Keiichiro tried to help, but Ryou could tell that he, too, was hurting. How could five such bright, passionate lives be snuffed out in a matter of days? And he had been powerless to stop it._

He remembered long, cold days spent trapped in his basement, trying to convince himself he was going over data. To ensure it would never happen again. But what was he really trying to prevent?

_The long-cold cup of tea clattered to the ground as Ryou stood abruptly. "I'm going for a walk," he announced, purposefully avoiding Keiichiro's gaze. "Need some fresh air."_

_Keiichiro nodded slowly. "Yes, I think that's a good idea."_

The attacks hadn't stopped with their deaths.

_Ryou walked around a hole blasted out of the concrete without much thought, hands shoved into his pockets. Some nearby trees had dropped their leaves over the jagged gash, but the wind whisked them away again._

He felt just as powerless now as he did then. What could he have done differently? Anything. Everything.

_Few people walked alone, nowadays, although cars still ran through the streets. People trying to get to loved ones. The government was days away from issuing a mandatory evacuation. Ryou didn't care._

_He turned the corner, not looking where he was going. He heard cars honking at him and ignored them. He couldn't leave. He wouldn't leave them behind._

Everywhere he went, he was reminded of them. Of their smiles, their arguments, their triumphs, and their ends.

_Ryou shivered, idly wishing he'd brought a coat. He heard hurried footsteps behind him, but didn't turn to look. With a joyless hop, Ryou stepped off the curb and started walking in the street proper._

_It was a beautiful day, he supposed, if one was inclined to be pleased by the weather. A crisp day, treetops rustling in the breeze, yet barely a cloud up above. He wondered if anyone bothered to look up anymore._

_He continued down the street this way, zigzagging back and forth, neck craned as he watched the sky. It sounded silly to admit, even to himself, but the sky was just so… big. How could his actions amount to anything when compared to the magnitude of the cosmos? The thought was not a comforting one. For if his actions meant nothing, then what of the lives they had taken?_

_The footsteps were closer, still pursuing him. Ryou frowned, annoyed. He kept walking, not paying attention to where his feet were taking him._

_Something flashed across his vision, blinding him. Raising an arm to shield his eyes, Ryou peered ahead, trying to see what it was._

_A shout. Headlights, rooting him in place. He felt something knock into him, heard a thud, and then at last, at long, long last… Ryou lost everything._

* * *

"Woah!" one boy breathed, watching as the man in the clearing ahead dissolved into mist even as he fell to the ground.

"Told you that tree was haunted," the other boy said, rising from their hiding spot in the bushes and puffing out his chest with pride, the fear and awe he felt moments before forgotten. "He'll come out every full moon and each time he does the same things, over and over."

"But what's he doing? It looks like he's talking to someone at times."

The second boy shrugged. "No one knows. No one's dared go too close."

His friend snorted. "Oh, yeah, 'cause he's _such_ a scary ghost!"

"Shows what you know! The last time someone tried to get close, he collapsed. Won't talk about what he saw even to this day."

"No way!"

"Uh-huh."

"So, who do you think he was? The ghost, I mean. Think he was someone important back in – what did this place used to be called, again?"

"Japan, you moron. And you'd've known that if you paid more attention in history class!"

"I pay plenty of attention!"

"Yeah, just like yesterday, when I caught you asleep at your desk."

"That was a fluke and you know it!"

Still bickering, the two boys left the bushes and vanished into the night.

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**Boom, there you go. Hope that was entertaining! And I tag Immortal x Snow with the prompt of the Japanese government.**

**Let the games begin!**


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